


The Closest To A Home

by Proskenion



Series: Lully's Song. [3]
Category: Original Work
Genre: Card Games, Conversations, Domestic Fluff, Fluff, Games, Gen, Late Night Conversations, Slice of Life, world building
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-03-24
Updated: 2020-03-24
Packaged: 2021-03-01 03:35:46
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,016
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23298658
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Proskenion/pseuds/Proskenion
Summary: The master is away for two weeks with Argan, so the other slaves can enjoy a time without any pressure. Lully and Alceste talk a lot. Or just sweet moments of the protagonists' life.
Series: Lully's Song. [3]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1674253
Kudos: 1





	The Closest To A Home

**Author's Note:**

> HELLO ! 
> 
> So, this is just a small piece to build up the universe and my characters' Relationship a little. It's sweet and pure fluff. Hope you'll like it :)

‘You won again ! How can you always win ?’ Lully exclaimed, laughing out loud. She was playing cards with Alceste, Philippe, Jules and Athalia, and the gardener had been winning all the games so far. Ninon was sewing near the kitchen fireplace. It was late, and they were all enjoying a bit of free time in the evening before going to bed. Upstairs, Argan and the master were undoubtly working. Alceste gave a loud, cheerful laugh. 

‘I win because I’m better than you, that’s all,’ he teased. 

‘You win ‘cause you cheat, more like,’ Jules teased back. As an answer, the gardener gave him a strong, but friendly, stroke with his fist on his scalp, making the boy jape in surprise. Alceste offered one last game before bed, one last chance for them to try and beat him. From her seat, Ninon watched with a small, satisfied smile, like mother would while watching her offspring having a good time altogether. 

‘And… WON !’ Alceste’s voice was loud, sprinkling with joy and laughter. The other four watched, dismayed but laughing. ‘You’ll have to try harder if you want to beat me one day.’

‘I’m always up for a challenge,’ Lully answered. Her eyes locked on Alceste’s. They looked at each other in silence, a bit longer than necessary. When they looked away, they were both restraining a smile. 

‘Now, you should all go to bed,’ Ninon said, standing up. ‘Before Mister Regal comes down and finds you.’ _Mister Regal_ was Argan’s nickname between the slaves – when he was not near to here it, of course. A teasing, half-affectionate way of making fun of the secreteray’s snobbish manneurism. Ninon put her sewing aside on the chair.

‘Chop chop,’ she said. 

Jules and Philippe stood up and left, teasing one another, which ended in a noisy run in the stairs, and Ninon coming and calling after them with apparent annoyance, but not without tenderness. Athalia rolled her eyes and followed. Alceste was putting the cards away in a cupboard. He thought he was alone, but when he turned he noticed Lully had not left her spot on the bench at the table. She smiled at him. Alceste blushed slightly, and smiled back.

‘Aren’t you tired ?’ he asked.

‘I am,’ she answered. 

‘Then go to bed, I’ll take care of the fire and all.’ 

She shook her head slowly, biting her lower lips. ‘I’ll help you,’ she said. She stood up. The fire in the hearth was the only light left, so Alceste took a candle and lit it. He put it on the mantlepiece. Once done, he knelt in front of the fireplace and Lully joined him. 

‘So, are you really that gifted at cards or is Jules right, you’re cheat ?’ Lully asked while holding a bucket for Alceste to put the ashes and still slightly burning embers in it. The yound man laughed. 

‘What would you like best ?’ he asked. 

‘I don’t know. Either way, you can teach me. So I have a real chance against you.’ Alceste laughed again. They got up. He took the bucket from her hands. She took the candle. 

‘I’d rather keep a bit of mystery,’ he said. Their eyes locked into each other again, their faces barely lit by the candlelight. They stayed like that, smiling and looking into each oher eyes, as if challenging the other to advert their gaze first. 

‘What is going on here ?’ Argan’s voice put an abrupt end to their games. They both turn to him. The man is standing by the kitchen door, holding a candle too. In the semi-obscurity, the long body of the secretary seemed even taller. Lully and Alceste cleared their throats, taking a step from each other. 

‘We were just about to leave, actually,’ Alceste said, vaguely showing the bucket. ‘Just need to get read of that first.’ He turned to Lully and smiled, ‘good night.’ He nodded to Argan and disappeared. 

‘Good night,’ Lully said politely to the secretary before leaving as well. 

Two days later, Scaron Bonifay left with Argan to the King’s Court. Scaron regularly left for the Court, for a couple of days, sometimes more. That was the best of times for Lully. In almost a year at the priest’s service, she had already enjoyed several weeks of happinnes without the stern face of the master around, and Argan behind him like a shadow. This time, Scaron would be gone for two weeks, for the King were celebrating his birthday and had invited all the nobles to join for a five days long party. Lully remembered when she was a noble herself, when she still had a name. She had never been to Court, she had been too young. And now, she would never go. She realised this was not a sad thought for her, just a fact. What care could she have about the Court ? For her, it was as such a strange land as a country from the other part of the world might be. She might be merely curious about it, but that was all. 

As a priest, Scaron Bonifay had a certain importance. An importance increased by the fact that he was the King’s High Priestress’, Athenais Scarlatti, little protégé. Athenais was only equalled in honour by the Magician Iphigenia, the other King’s councellor, and as a young promising priest, Bonifay could more than hope to become the next High Priest when Atheanis’ time would be done. Lully vaguely wondered what it would mean for her if it were to happen – to be a High Priest’s slave. Would it mean she would be somehow more important ? Probably not. It did not really matter who their master was, a slave is only a slave. Maybe she would have to live at the Palace ? But that too was unlikely, she was just a maid after all. No, she would probably stay here, after all, only Argan would have to move to the Palace with Scaron. She suddenly wish the priest would be promoted as soon as possible –how old could the High Priestess be, she wondered. 

The life changed considerably when Argan and the master was not there. Of course they were all still bound to their daily duties. But an atmosphere of freshness and carelessness inevitably came with the two men’s departure, with laughters and songs filling the air, and night evenings by the fireplace, with Ninon endless sewing, Jules and Philippe friendly fighting, and Alceste’s funny or scary stories. And of course, the cards game. Yes, at those time, Lully could say it, life was sweet, and that sweetness nearly made her forget of her former life, of her fallen fate. 

One night, they stayed up even later than usual. Ninon was the first to give up and go to bed, quickly followed by Athalia. Philippe finally left, but only when he was already half-asleep on his chair. Jules, Lully and Alceste stayed together, the boy always asking for another, and another story, and another. And Alceste would always comply, never running out of ideas and always finding a new tale to tell. At some point, Jules fell asleep, knelt near the fire, his back leaning against Lully’s legs, her hand in his hair. At that moment, the three of them were such a beautiful picture of simple and soft happinness. 

‘I should take him to bed,’ Alceste said. ‘We should all go to bed.’ But neither of them moved. Instead, they stayed silent, their faces lightened by the dying fire in the hearth. Lully looked at the gardener. She had watched him again and again since she first arrived here. He was a strong man of 25, with large shoulder and big hands, calloused by his work outside. But his attitude, his voice, his posture, was nothing but strong – _he looks like a bear but inside he is no more than a pup_ , she thought. 

‘Do you miss it ?’ Alceste’s voice is nothing more but a breath, shy and kind. ‘Your former life ?’ The question, asked by any other by him, would have offended her beyond reason. But it was Alceste asking, so she considered it carefully, in earnest. She did not know. She did not think about it much. Perhaps, sometimes, yes, she missed it. But the more the days went by, the less this other life felt real. In a few week, she would have been here for a year already. And what difference was there between this life and the old one ? Not much. She was still an orphan, and she spent her days with the same kind of people. In here, she had friends, a new family to call her own. 

‘I miss my piano,’ she said. ‘And my lyre. My library too, I guess.’

‘There is one big one here,’ Alceste said. ‘And a grand piano, too.’ 

‘Yes, but you know damn well I’m not allowed in there, except for cleaning. As for the piano…’ 

‘But the master isn’t here,’ Alceste said conspiratiorally. Lully gave him a surprised look. Was he really sudgesting ?... He winked. She laughed. 

‘Ninon would not approve,’ she said, amused at the thought. 

‘Ninon is currently alseep.’ 

‘Stop it,’ she laughed. Though now that he had instilled the thought in her mind, she knew she would not be able to get rid of it easily. She was almost cross with him for that – except she could not be cross with him. Beside, he looked serious… Would that be actually possible ? Sneaking in the library while the master was gone ? 

‘And… Your mother ?’ Alceste asked. Lully’s smiled disappeared in an instant, her joy fading like the sun behind black clouds. 

‘What about her ?’ 

‘I don’t know. You never speak about her.’ 

‘Because there is nothing to say,’ she answered sharply. Jules moaned in his sleep. For a while, none of them talked. Eventually, Alceste asked :

‘Why, though ? Why isn’t there anything to say ?’

‘I don’t like this conversation,’ Lully answered. She suddenly wanted to run away, but she was stuck here by Jules sleeping at her feet. Alceste sighed. She avoided looking at him, suddenly embarrassed. And upset. 

‘Jules doesn’t have parents, you know ?’ Alceste said. No, she did not know, she had never thought of asking. She glanced at the gardener, a bit sharply. What was he trying to say ? ‘He’s been found on a church doorstep. Since the beginning of his life, he’s been trained to be a slave, with other orphans like him. He is thirteen, and this is his first position, his first time in what looks like the closest to a home.’ 

‘What' the meaning of this ?’ Lully lashed out, too loud, too sharp. Alceste chuckled, without his usual joy. It felt odd to see him so serious, almost abnormal. 

‘I don’t know what’s going on between your mother and you,’ Alceste finally said. ‘I don’t know if it’s just about what happened to you, the treason sentence and all, or if there’s more, but you still have her, and it’s not something everyone can say.’

‘You don’t know my mother,’ Lully replied. ‘Better not having one than having one like her.’ Jules moaned again.

‘Don’t say that,’ Alceste said. ‘I’m sure you don’t even mean it.’ 

‘Oh I do mean it,’ Lully exploded. ‘I wish she were dead, she is dead to me.’ _If I could I would trade her for my father without any hesitation_ , she thought, but did not say. Alceste looked at her intensely, in a way he never had before. Jules moved. He opened his eyes and asked sleepily what he had missed. 

‘Time to sleep,’ Alceste said, getting up. He took the sleepy boy in his strong arms. Before leaving the kitchen, he turned and said :

‘Think about what I said. If you wanted to, I’m sure the master could arrange a visit.’ And then he was gone, leaving Lully alone in the kitchen, the last embers dying in the fireplace. She felt irritated, upset, and tired. Though, the conversion were to haunt her for hours and hours during the night, preventing her from falling asleep.

**Author's Note:**

> Thank you for reading <3


End file.
